Road To Recovery
by Kaze Rei
Summary: Set post the anime. Yaya has to get over her love and adapt to the major changes in her life now that Hikari is an etoile. She has to learn to see around her and open up. Simply Yaya!


**Yo! :D As you can see this is my first fic, and English is only my third language, so please excuse any grammatical mistakes (And if you point them out and explain I'll be forever grateful!). All you my writing skills are self-taught so it isn't perfect and thus your help is very valuable :P Now I do want to continue this, but I haven't really thought it out, if you have any suggestions hit me XD But I don't guarantee I'll use them :P Nevertheless they're still very welcome :D Oh and I still haven't chosen who Yaya would be paired with (it will be done as I go on) so this might still change or make her end up with someone weird! XD Haters gonna hate XD**

**Disclaimer: I do not own strawberry panic, therefore Yaya wasn't the main character and momomi was barely shown through the series.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>Road to Recovery<strong>_

"The only way to destroy love… is love." Yaya repeated to herself leaning against the church's wall in the back garden. _Pathetic_.

It has been three days since the Etoile election took place. From that day Yaya barely had a chance to spend time with Hikari. As much as the girl occupied her mind, Yaya wished she could forget about her, and move on with her life. Indeed she was sick of all the pain, but getting out of that love was obviously more difficult than falling in.

"Yaya-senpai! Why didn't you come to practice?" A familiar voice called out pulling her out of her reverie, and unmistakably belonged to one special little kouhai that Yaya didn't need to look at to guess the face she was making.

"And here comes the little brat," She replied dramatically rolling her eyes.

Tsubomi snorted turning her head away as she crossed her arms defensively. "Says the perverted arrogant one!" She replied half-heartedly.

Ever since Hikari became etoile, Yaya's smile vanished, her sense of humor became dry as if what she said was out of habit, and every time she joked, Tsubomi felt her heart break. The latter stood at a respectable distance from Yaya, and turned to look at the trees that seemed to absorb all of her senpai's attention.

"You're always so loud, Tsubomi-chan," Yaya remarked closing her eyes, and allowed her head to fall forward. Inwardly she was thankful, that 'little brat' was always there to pull her away from her broodings and distract her, something no one else could accomplish. We could even say that she enjoyed her little friend's company, always so lively, fun but she needed to admit that to herself before saying it out loud. Like that will happen, it's Tsubomi that girl.

"And you're still a slacker! You didn't show up for lunch, and was nowhere to be found when it was time for practice! Lunch is the most important meal of the day!" -_Wait that's breakfast... anyway-. _"You should be more careful…" And so Tsubomi started her daily lecture, facing Yaya, a hand resting on her hip as she nodded her head from time to time, acknowledging her own words with a stern frown.

Yaya just watched her distractedly, losing track of what she was saying after the first few exclamations. Indeed why was it so painful to love someone? Why was her body and emotions so conflicting with her mind? Why did Amane exist? And… since when did Tsubomi put on some makeup? The raven haired girl stepped closer to her kouhai and leaned her face closer to the girl's narrowing her eyes.

"-With all you have..." Tsubomi's voice trailed away blinking at Yaya's actions. It took her a moment before she realized how close their faces were, hers flushed almost immediately as she gulped. "Yaya-senpai?" she said in a whisper.

Seemingly oblivious to the reactions and the question, Yaya stepped forward grasping Tsubomi's wrist and pulling her closer as the pinkette tried to back away. The short girl watched with wide eyes in disbelief. The first idea that came to her mind was that Yaya was about to kiss her, and knowing that the girl's love was reserved to a special blonde who preferred to offer her own to some icy prince, her reactions of shying away were only logical as much as she wished it could happen.

However, Yaya tightened her grip as she raised her other hand to the young girl's face and lightly stroked her lower lip, then gently swept, with her index, the end of the girl's eye ignoring the gasp and flinch that had followed.

Tsubomi held her breath, surprised, her gaze focused on her senpai in confusion. _What was that?_ She just imagined Yaya kissing her when she swore she had to keep those feelings buried inside as long as she knew she didn't have a chance, as long as she was in the shadow of Hikari.A few seconds later, the pinkette blinked and exhaled, allowing her eyes to fall to Yaya's hands. "EH?"

Meanwhile, the frown remained plastered on Yaya's face as she stared at her fingers highlighted by some light pink and black, then she turned to the other girl looking at her quizzically.

Heat crept up Tsubomi's face, whether it was from the embarrassment of what just happened associated with her imagination, or from unexplained sudden anger… Or it was from the intense deep amber eyes locked on her as if they were pleading for answers to an unasked question. Tsubomi noticed that they were slightly red with barely visible eye bags hidden by makeup, undoubtedly from crying and being unable to sleep at night. The pinkette's heart squeezed at the thought as she broke the eye contact to look anywhere but at her friend –sadly-. "Is there-" Why did it have to be Hikari? How could she compete with an angel that was even able to steal an ice prince's heart? "-A _problem_?" After the weak start in her question Tsubomi pressed on the last word turning her back to Yaya again. _Or is it because she is Hikari…_

Yaya's hand dropped to her side as she gazed at the girl biting her lower lip.

_It's all too tiresome… I'm exhausted, let's just get over it already. It's enough…_

"Ne, Tsu-bo-mi-chan…"

Before she could react, Tsubomi felt two arms snake around her waist and connect in front of her stomach, then pulled her back. The girl stiffened sensing every muscle of her body fail to move not even giving her the ability to look at those arms, except for her heart that she feared might be pounding too loud too fast that Yaya could hear it just like she did. In an attempt to protest, she opened her mouth but all that came out was a gasp as noticed from the corner of her eyes Yaya approaching her face before resting her chin on the pinkette's shoulder.

"Are you sure it's healthy to have a face assorted with your hair, it's dangerously pink…" Yaya said passively frowning slightly as she stared ahead.

It was only then that Tsubomi noticed how hot her cheeks felt, and that her mouth was still hanging open. She closed it to gulp then took a deep breath and-

"I'm hungry, let's go grab something," Yaya said again with the same dull expression reminding Tsubomi how much of an enigma she could be. The girl sighed suddenly feeling the pressure fading and smiled. It had been long since Yaya made such an approach, and it was the first time that Tsubomi was the object for her affection… _Not that I care._

"Baka, where you also here during lunch?"

They broke away, and Tsubomi –still blushing- took off with Yaya trailing right behind her, the slightest hint of a smile forming on her face.

_Yeah right, keep telling yourself that 'little brat'... _Tsubomi also smiled slowing down for her senpai to catch up, and then matched her pace to the raven haired girl's.

_~~ Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend  
>Somewhere along in the bitterness<br>And I would have stayed up with you all night  
>Had I known how to save a life~~<em>

_**Reviews will earn you a kiss~ **_


End file.
